Overprotective
by MissKluck
Summary: Old habits die hard. For day 10 of SSmonth. SasuSaku one-shot.


I've come to the conclusion that with my workload and my beta's living in a time zone six hours after me these prompts will be late. I'll still do my best to try and not be too late.

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto

**Overprotective**

It was in the middle of an already drawn-out fight that Sasuke noticed it. The guy sneaking up behind an oblivious Sakura, a large battle-axe already positioned high and ready to chop her in two. He didn't have time to shout a warning; he only reacted, just like so many years ago. Sasuke jumped off the branch he'd been standing on, impulsively rushing out to safe Sakura before she got hurt. In his mind he already pictured so many outcomes. What if he wasn't in time? What if the enemy managed to get to her before he did? What the heck was Sakura even doing?!

But before any of this happened, Sasuke witnessed, amazed, as Sakura quickly bit her thumb, scroll already pulled forth and summoned a battle-axe of her own? Wait what? Sasuke landed on a branch just nearby, watching Sakura as she wheeled around, wielding the probably heavy battle-axe as if it was a feather. Her reflexed with the axe were quick, skilled, as if she'd done this many times before. But if so, when did that happen? Sasuke clearly couldn't remember Sakura using a battle-axe anytime before. Then again, maybe that wasn't so weird since he'd just returned back to Konoha after the war, and during the war Sakura had had more than enough with healing people and just using her own bare fists to fight.

And that would mean that Sakura had learnt and fought with such weapons even before the war even started. Was that such kind of weapons any medics would carry around to protect themselves with? But no, Sakura wasn't just any medic either. Sasuke hated to admit it, but he almost found himself dismayed by how little he now seemed to know about his once clumsily unskilled teammate. It was clearly proven in just this one scene, with him rushing to save her only to find her holding her own maybe even better than he could against such a weapon. To be quite honest Sasuke felt a little stupid.

Of course Sakura had changed, it was only natural with all the time they'd spent apart training. But that didn't mean he had to like it. A part of him still ached to go in there and protect her, to save her from the enemy, but she clearly didn't need saving, and if he rushed in like that he might end up being the one pounded away instead of the enemy. And so Sasuke opted to just observe the pair, absentmindedly holding off the nins he had been fighting previously.

It didn't take Sakura long though; she quickly caught the man by surprise, disarming him and catching his axe too so that she now clearly had the upper hand. Still, Sasuke knew that she wouldn't cut the enemy down, that wasn't Sakura. She'd probably just knock him into another one of the shinobi attacking them or knock the poor guy out, resulting in him probably waking up again with quite a few fractures to several bones.

Sasuke hated to admit it, but he almost found himself envious of how easily Sakura seemed to handle the situation. The man she was fighting against clearly stood no chance against her and her axe, and as Sasuke had suspected, only a few moments later the man was sent flying, taking several of his own comrades with him. Now it wasn't only him who was watching Sakura, most of their attackers were too, mixed feelings flashing across their faces, though most of the attackers clearly showing off a lot of fear. And oddly enough Sasuke found himself proud, he smirked as he continued fighting too, working himself closer and closer to where Sakura was.

But it seemed like rather than coming closer to Sakura he came further from her, his attackers pushing him from different sides, but mainly away from the axe handling pinkette. And the Sasuke understood why. A monster of muscles on two muscular legs was approaching Sakura surprisingly fast, catching her by surprise by punching her in the gut. Sasuke stood there horrified, watching as Sakura neared the trees with too large a speed and in the next moment Sasuke found himself jumping and catching Sakura, having impulsively reacted to her being hit.

Landing on a branch a safe distance away, Sasuke carefully set a slightly confused Sakura down on her feet. She then seemed to figure out what had just happened and turned to him, but Sasuke didn't quite get the reaction he'd expected.

"Sasuke-kun! What do you think you're doing?!" Sakura exclaimed, stomping her foot like a five year old. "I had it all planned out! That guy was as good as in the hospital already, he was mine! Why did you suddenly have to interfere?"

Sasuke, irritated with her statement and her ungratefulness as well as still uncomfortable with Sakura being punched, couldn't help but yell back: "You had it all planned out?! How does you being punched in the stomach and sent flying become 'planned out'?! Last time I checked, taking a punch like that meant you had been ambushed, not planning it, Sakura!"

"Well I did!" She insisted, face growing red with anger.

Sasuke watched her unamused. "And what were you going to do with the impact? You had too fast a speed to even get to turn fully around to try and stop it before you'd go through several trees! What are you trying to do, get yourself killed?!" Despite him being riled up Sasuke had been pretty worried too. The last time he had seen Sakura sent flying like that was when Kaguya had tried to kill them, and she had almost succeeded too if it hadn't been for Kakashi.

"No, of course not!" Sakura was still furious, coming into his face. "When I said I had it planned out, I meant it! I had it all planned out! This isn't the first time I'm taking a hit like that, and probably not the last either," Sakura ended her retort a little calmer, having caught a glimpse of something akin to worry in Sasuke's eyes. "I can take of myself you know, I'm not that weak, little girl I once was," she continued earnestly. "Why do you worry so much anyways? I- well, I didn't think you cared?" She was looking away now, a sad and almost shy glance at the side of the branch.

Sasuke opened his mouth to say something, but nothing came out. He had no idea what to say, what to answer her question, though it seemed that Sakura took the silence as an answer, smiling sadly as she thought her hope yet again had been crushed.

"You don't need to protect me just because I was once weak, you don't have to act... Let's just finish this match already," Sakura had looked away, something glinting in her eyes that Sasuke caught on to. Feeling helpless with the situation, but seeing that he had to act quick as their attackers had soon caught up to them, Sasuke did the only thing he could think about at the moment: he took a hold of Sakura's arm, spun her around and before he even had a chance to think about it, he was kissing her.

It was short, chaste and rushed, the two being short on time before they were caught up to, and yet it was so special. They were both surprised by the turn of events, Sasuke because he's actually done something like that without thinking about it and Sakura just because Sasuke had done it because she never really thought he'd ever reciprocate her feelings. She had always hoped so, having kept her hope for many years, but she dared not truly believe it, as she didn't want to get hurt yet again.

The kiss didn't last long, Sasuke soon pulled away, actually blushing lightly while Sakura was red as a tomato, eyes wide and they both found that they longed to try that again.

"I… You… We…" Sakura was stuttering, blushing more and more as she realized what just happened. "What?" Confusion was clearly evident in her face as she looked at Sasuke, still not actually believing he'd just kissed her.

As the enemy shinobi approached again and Sakura still stood there slightly dumbfounded, but blushing, Sasuke smirked, ears read, as he called out, "Weren't you the one yelling at me just now for hindering you from sending that guy to the hospital?" He pointed to one of the many men approaching them in a hurry.

Sasuke watched as Sakura shook her head, seemingly getting out of a daze as she smiled and- had that glint in her eye always been there? They set out, Sakura picking up her battle-axe on the way, and as they fought side-by-side, both teens couldn't help but think about the bright future that had now opened up for them. Sure there would be problems, misunderstandings and the like, but now they knew they had someone who could be willing to share this with them, all because of an impulsive overprotectiveness.


End file.
